The invention relates to online database methods and systems for providing, evaluating and retrieving answers.
Online answer databases have arisen in which ordinary users contribute answers for free. Wikipedia is an example. Online answer databases have also arisen in which ordinary users contribute answers for pay. Google Answers (now defunct) is an example. U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,085 describes a pay-for-answers database method and system. In both types of systems, various problems impede users from improving answers. One basic problem is the labor cost of judging the quality of answers. A second basic problem is that there is no good method for measuring the quality of an answer; so therefore, disputes arise as to whether and how much one answer improves on another.
Current methods for improving answers in databases include:                Having a special class of users who have special rights to improve answers        Having a special class of users who judge the quality of answers        Incorporating user feedback regarding answers        Using mechanistic rules for evaluating and ranking answers.        
This application discloses a novel method that reduces the costs of disputes about whether one answer is an improvement over another. In this method, an author of an answer bets that her answer is better than a higher ranked answer by another author. The potential financial penalty of the bet encourages honesty by both authors as to who has supplied the better answer. The challenger author's answer replaces the higher ranked answer if the author of the higher ranked answer declines to bet. This method can be adapted to allow consumers of answers to also bet and thereby affect the ranking of answers.
The inventor does not know of this method being proposed for any answer system. U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,085 stated that betting methods could be used for quality control of answers, but the patent did not supply details.